What finally got Bobby Brown clean and sober? The fear of getting thrown back in jail.

“Jail got me to stop taking drugs. I never wanted to go back to jail. I didn’t want to be incarcerated ever, ever again,” the singer, 47, says in a new interview on The Dr. Oz Show, airing Thursday.

In 2013, Brown served nine hours of his 56-day jail sentence after he plead no contest to driving under the influence of alcohol. He also spent two days in jail for a 60-day sentence in 2004.

“I didn’t want my kids to grow up and see me in that type of light. I’ve always been one to want to grow, to want to be better and better on the next day,” he added. “My children mean everything to me. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them, so I try to be as strong as possible for them every day.”

“I’m doing great. Of course, on an everyday basis I still think about her and I still go through it,” he says. “But I think I’m a lot more comfortable with knowing that she’s in a better place … she’s not in pain anymore, and I’m just grateful for that.”